38 THE vine-dkessee's makcjal. 



believed, that a return to the ' old sorts' would stop the 

 progress of the grape sickness." Kwe take the trouble 

 to inquire, we should find that the ''old sorts" are 

 grapevines adopted after much experience, and that 

 that experience, although the reasons for it may have 

 been lost, is often worth more than untried experiments. 

 I am not opposed to all experiments, but I do think 

 that persons who set out " vineyards" had better fol- 

 low the most approved beaten track of their time. 

 The men to experiment are nursery men. In Europe, 

 there are hundreds of varieties of grapes. Not only 

 has each locality its own favorite, but they frequently 

 again change mth each generation. These varieties 

 were all originally imported into, and exchanged be- 

 tween different portions of Europe. Hungary got some 

 of its vines from Greece and Asia Minor ; Germany 

 from Italy and Hungary ; France and Spain from all 

 parts of the Mediterranean ; and then again have all 

 exchanged with each other. A grape approved by 

 one country would be rejected in the other, and vice 

 versa. You can find the Hungarian Tookay in Ger- 

 many, a generally condemned grape, no doubt origin- 

 ally similar to the Malaga grape, and we may, on the 

 other hand, find the white and red Burgundy grape 

 much outside of France. Each imported grape was 

 again changed in each locality by soil, climate and 

 exposure. 



